It’s the Super Bowl of Minnesota food writing, and today is the day the teams are announced: Thirty-four official new foods and seven new food vendors.
The Dole Whip is back! That’s big news—a fair favorite that’s been gone for the past couple years. What else do we see this year? Pickle-palooza! Dill is for more than just pizza; this year, we see dill-pickle cheese-curd tacos, mango pickles, dill in ice cream, lemonade, dill fries—we get it!
New vendors include:
- Afro Deli (serving their excellent sambusas)
- Bandstand Concessions is the new group in the Grandstand led by some of the people who’ve worked on Ball Park Cafe
- Churros & Aguas Frescas (obvious)
- MomoDosa will be in the Midtown Global Market booth, Aug. 24-29
- Peachey’s Baking Company (Amish donuts)
- Tasti Whip (Dole soft serve and the famous Dole Whip)
- Wow Fudge (70 varieties of fudge in the Creative Activities Center)
OK, now to the new foods, ranked in order of what I think will be most delicious.
Courtesy of the Minnesota State Fair
-
Fried Green Tomato Sandwich: A return and rebirth of the BLT at Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop! I can’t wait to try this, as I adore fried green tomatoes, and celebrating the Minnesota tomato at the peak of heirloom tomato season sounds ideal. Cornmeal-crusted green tomatoes, mustard mayo, bacon, and lettuce. Vegetarians can sub the bacon for charred sweet corn relish. Both sound great.
- The Blue Barn knows how to do sharable, crowd-pleasing food, and Hot Honey Cheese Sticks sound like a no-brainer to me. Fried Halloumi cheese topped with hot honey and honeycomb crunch. I do ads for Blue Barn owner Blue Plate Restaurant Co. on the radio, but you guys know the ranking of foods that I’ve never tasted before cannot be bought.
- At Baba’s Hummus, find the Al Taco Baba: creamy hummus with a harissa barbacoa and shatta hot sauce. Baba’s has been in my top 10 for the two years they’ve been at the fair, and this sounds perfect to me.
- Hamline Church Dining Hall is gonna do crazy business with the Holey Hamloaf Breakfast Sandwich. Take the hamloaf (gross-looking but delicious meatloaf mixed with ham), glaze it, top it with caramelized onions and cheese, put it in a sandwich made with fried egg-in-a-hole toast? Sounds like the perfect church dining hall food.
- I’m in the tank for RC’s BBQ. I (almost) always love it, and Charlie Torgerson is a master of rubs. The Maui-sota Sticky Ribs are slow-smoked, St. Louis-style, caramelized with RC’s Sticky Huli Huli sauce, and seasoned with furikake, green onion, and cilantro. 10/10 will eat.
- A hummus battle! Holy Land’s hummus was my favorite for a long time before Baba’s came on the scene, but I don’t think they’ve ever served it at the fair before. Basil Hummus With Spicy Walnut Topping with garlic Parmesan chips sounds excellent.
- Giggles’ Campfire Grill knows what’s going to sell. Take the super-successful and properly rated Walleye Fritter and put it on a stick. Walleye Fritter Pops: smoked walleye mixed with a blend of cheeses, dill pickle relish, fresh garlic and spices, rolled in panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried. I love the original, why wouldn’t I love this?
- Soul Bowl is bringing some dill sweetness with Miami Mango Pickles: dill pickles infused with Miami mango punch. Crunchy, sweet, sharable—sounds great in the Food Building.
- French Meadow Bakery’s Ba-Sants: I’m very curious to try this sweet-corn-custard-filled bagel-croissant combo. There’s an Everything variety filled with scallion cream cheese for breakfast, too.
- Union Hmong Kitchen was one of the most successful new vendors of the last decade at the State Fair last year, and they’ve added a stuffed steamed bun called Galabao (rhymes with cow). It’s a traditional Hmong-style steamed bun stuffed with ground pork, egg, and spices—and a recipe from chef Yia Vang’s mom. Pick your sauce: Crunchy Chili Oil, Kua Hot Pepper Sauce, or Lemongrass Scallion Dressing.
- Bridgeman’s Bee Sting Sundae: spicy, sweet, crunchy—lots to love in this vanilla ice cream topped with hot honey, spicy peanuts, whipped cream, and a cherry.
- Afro Deli is new, and you’re going to want to try a sambusa. Three varieties include beef, chicken, and veggie. Fried, savory, sharable, and served with “Basbaas,” a spicy Somali dipping sauce made with fresh chili peppers, jalapeños, cilantro, onions, and lemon juice. They’ll also have sweet plantains and Somali Tea. Find them in the Food Building.
- I’m intrigued by Green Mill’s Cheese Curd Stuffed Pizza Pretzel. Is it pretzel-flavored pizza dough, or is it just pizza dough in the shape of a pretzel? Sort of a calzone vibe here. It’s stuffed with Ellsworth cheese curds, pepperoni, and Italian spices, and it’s topped with diced pepperoni, herbs, and Parmesan cheese.
- MomoDosa is a terrific Midtown Global Market vendor, and no one’s going to be disappointed with the Chicken Momo With Tomato Chutney. Momos are dumplings, originally from Tibet, popular in Nepal. Ground chicken, cabbage, onion, ginger, and other spices are steamed in the dough. Dip it in tomato chutney and enjoy. (Available Aug. 24-29 only.)
- I love Arepa Bar at Midtown Global Market, and after Aug. 29, when MomoDosa moves out of the fair booth (see above), the Smoked Beef Arepa moves in. It’s a crispy corn sandwich, sort of pita-like, with smoked roast beef, avocado puree, fresh tomatoes, red onions, and arugula in a baked Venezuelan crispy corn pocket. It’ll be hefty, a great full meal option. I’m looking forward to it. (Available Aug. 30-Sept. 4 only.)
- Spinning Wylde’s Cloud Coolers sound so fun. Pick your lemonade flavor (strawberry, huckleberry, or violet), and each one is topped with a matching flavor of cotton candy. Cute!
-
Nutella-filled churros could be a winner at the new vendor Churros & Aguas Fresca (Lee & Underwood). You can get a bag of churros with caramel or fudge sauce; churros filled with strawberry, Nutella, or Bavarian cream; churro sundaes with vanilla bean or cinnamon ice cream; and aguas frescas in watermelon, mango, pineapple, and strawberry lime flavors. All sound good to me!
- LuLu’s Public House is taking a Betty and Earl’s biscuit made with fruity cereal milk and cereal bits, drizzling it with icing flavored with fruity cereal, and topping it with more cereal bits. This is nostalgia big time. The Fruity Cereal Milk Biscuit will likely be sweeter than I tend to enjoy, but I’m really curious about this one.
- Vegans, rejoice. Herbivorous Butcher is back in the Food Building, and the Crunchy Balboa sounds good. A deep-fried tortilla is filled with vegan roast beef, bacon, and cheese sauce, plus peppers, onions, and a hashbrown patty.
- What is an Amish donut? Do I want a regular donut at the fair? We’ll find out when we try Peachey’s Baking Company’s warm, vanilla glaze donuts, or the oversized Peanut Butter Cream Doughnut. They’ll have Southern Sweet Tea, too, at this new vendor on the north side of Randall Avenue between Cooper and Cosgrove streets, in front of the Progress Center.
- Minneapple Pie has never led me astray, but I’m cautiously nervous about the MinneCookieDough Pie. It’s a regular pie crust stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough. Sounds like a high potential to be a sugar bomb, but we shall see.
-
Savory Tipsy-Pies? Sara’s does the blend of alcohol and sweets so well. Now, she’s mashing up a 7 Vines Winery red wine-infused pizza sauce with sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. There’s a chicken-mushroom-spinach version of a dunker, too. Curious.
- This is a great idea, and I am 0% going to buy it. Ha! We all have our things. Sabino’s Pizza Pies in the Warner Coliseum has created a Sota-cuterie Board—charcuterie meats, cheese, and pickles on an edible, herb-crusted cracker “board.” Clever! Brilliant! I don’t want charcuterie at the fair. But if you’re in the coliseum watching the llama show, you may.
- Blue Moon Dine-In Theater has done so well with their dessert items over the years. I’m optimistic about the Irish Butter Ice Cream Over Brown Sugar Cinnamon Toast. Drizzled with butter syrup and sprinkled with sea salt flakes, this is a sit-down-and-enjoy dish, not a walk-around and share, but I am excited about it.
- Richie’s Cheese Curd Tacos brought mixed reactions last year, but the most I heard were positive. The dill pickle pizza had the longest lines at the fair. So it only makes sense that we’re seeing a Dill Pickle Cheese Curd Taco: fried white cheddar cheese curds, sandwich stacker dill pickles, cream cheese, lettuce, and raspberry chipotle sauce in a fried flour tortilla. Doesn’t do much for me, but we’ll see.
- LuLu’s Cheesecake Curds will either be simple and perfect or simply boring. Eli’s Cheesecake pieces are covered in funnel cake batter, fried, and dusted with powdered sugar and salt. Served with strawberry dipping sauce.
- The Nordic Waffles Bacon-Wrapped Waffle Dog makes me nervous. Cheese dog, burger sauce—it just seems like it will be too much on the waffle. We’ll see.
- We have pickle dogs, we have the perfect pickle—do we need Pickle Fries from Mike’s Hamburgers? Thin-cut dill pickle fries lightly coated in a cornmeal-and-seasoned-mustard batter. Served with a side of chipotle dipping sauce. Might be a nice option with their great burgers, but I’m not going out of my way for this.
- Cafe Caribe’s Loaded Lobster Fries makes me wonder—who wants this at the fair? There are already great French fries. Do you really want State Fair lobster? At any rate, get your lobster, on fries, topped with bacon, drizzled with chipotle mayonnaise, and let me know how it is.
- I love fried ravioli. It’s a logical fair food, but I’m not particularly geeked about Fried Butternut Squash Ravioli, especially as Oodles of Noodles is doing it as a dessert, sprinkled with maple cinnamon sugar and served with a side of whipped ricotta.
- The paletas have been a nice delight at Hamline Church Dining Hall—Mexican frozen treats on-a-stick—but I’m not all that interested in Dill Pickle Lemonade or Mini Donut. Actual dill pickle slices in a lemonade ice cream? Vanilla ice cream with mini donut bits and a whole cinnamon mini donut inside sounds more appealing.
-
Birthday Cake Mini Donuts sound like ruining something that’s already demonstrably perfect. Why make mini donuts taste like birthday cake? Why drizzle them, dust them with sugar and sprinkles? Why not, I guess. Find them at Mini Donuts & Cheese Curds, located on the east side of Underwood Street between Murphy and Lee avenues.
- More mini donut blasphemy at Coasters in the form of Donut Delights: mini donuts wrapped in bacon, on-a-stick, deep-fried, and topped with a layer of peanut butter and drizzled with raspberry dessert sauce. Will try. Will not like.
- No no no no no no. Seafood at the fair is usually a bad idea, but crispy lutefisk is next level! Shanghai Henri’s, by the International Bazaar, gets points for giving people a taste of Minnesota heritage that many have never experienced, but no thank you to the Crispy Lutefisk Steam Bun. In total: a steamed lotus bun filled with a blend of cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and yum yum sauce, plus Olsen Fish Company lutefisk brined in salt water for 12 hours, covered in sweet hoisin sauce, then baked and topped with sesame seeds.
New nonalcoholic beverages of note:
1. Jammy Sammies by BRIM is bringing two new and delicious-sounding jam-infused lemonades: Blueberry Mint and Strawberry Jalapeño Jam’nades.
2. “Kind of a Big Dill” Pickle Lemonade: Lemonade mixed with tangy dill pickling spices, craft brewed by Urban Growler, and garnished with a crunchy slice of pickle (nonalcoholic). At Nordic Waffles, located at West End Market, south section.
3. Quench’d has a Lemonade Sorbet that sounds refreshing, with a lemon zest and mint garnish, served in a frozen half-lemon shell. South side of Dan Patch Avenue between Nelson and Underwood streets.
